On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 12:10 AM, turtle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all > I am thinking of putting together a series of classes this winter Jan - Mar > Focusing on Opensource Software for professional use. > I am looking for interested presenters, sponsors and local IT's and coders > that support the software or use it. > The Idea is to make the classes free or most of the classes free depending on > the cost of the presenters and there travel expenses. Some of the classes may > include handouts or books and will have a fee for the book. > Software on the list so far is: > Ledgersmb -accounting > Qcad - drafting > Openoffice -office > Gimp / Inkscape - illustration / photography > Scribus - Desktop publishing. > > Any ideas input discussion welcome.
Advantages/disadvantages/methods of switching to a FOSS web browser seems like a natural to me, given the history of security issues with MSIE. The Zotero Firefox extension would be a good introduction to the power of FOSS extensions to Firefox. <http://www.zotero.org/> (requires Firefox 3 for synchronization). Other candidates: Tab Mix Plus, <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1122>, and the Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer service, <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410>. Related, the use of FOSS server-side apps, e.g., Alfresco or Nuxeo for ECM, Zimbra for eMail, contacts, and shared calendaring; and vTiger for CRM. An over-all theme might be to stress the importance of cross-platform apps as part of any sane migration strategy for a business transitioning from Windows to another platform. E.g., a Linux web app server can be plugged into an existing Microsoft-bound network, cross-platform desktop apps can be implemented one at a time on Windows yet still prepare office staffers for switching completely to Linux down the line. With cross-platform apps, migration can be incrementally deployed. Something along the lines of "FOSS -- Migrating Away from Vendor Lock-in" might be a title for the series, although I'm sure folks here can come up with a better one. Virtual machines/translators/emulators also belong somewhere in a migration or cross-platform discussion, e.g., Wine, VirtualBox, Bochs, as well as data synchronization tools. <intentional-thread-drift> Software as a Service, although non-FOSS, can also play an important role in migrating away from Windows. Three examples: 1. Using a Linux desktop for new law school grads just became a whole lot more feasible with the release of Clio, a law office practice management service developed in collaboration with the Law Society of British Columbia for firms with 10 lawyers or less. <http://www.goclio.com/index.html>. To my knowledge, this is the first competent practice management app for Anglo-Saxon nations that can be used with a Linux desktop (and I've looked far and wide). As is said on the Clio web site, if you capture one otherwise missed billable hour of work per month, you've turned a profit on the subscription cost. When penalizing lawyers who don't keep competent contemporaneous time records in attorney fee awards, U.S. courts routinely cite studies showing that lawyers who do not keep contemporaneous time records under bill by an average of 40 per cent. So FOSS or not, welcome Clio because you make it far more feasible to use free and open source software. 2. Many office users don't need a full-blown office suite like OpenOffice.org. The free Google Docs and Zoho online office suites both read and write, inter alia, OpenDocument, MS binary, RTF, and HTML formats. 3. As an alternative to Microsoft Acess, the Dabble DB online service is inexpensive and achieves an unusually fine balance of usability and power.<http://dabbledb.com/>. Mashups and iFrames for business-specific data. (The 8-minute flash demo is highly recommended. As one who is RDBMS-challenged, I've found Dabble a delight to work with. :-) </intentional-thread-drift> My 2 cents, Paul --- Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
